The Danger of Exercising the Intellect and Prioritizing It over the Texts
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The Shaykh : A third example, and I hope it is the last so that we do not prolong this too much. This is also found in the man’s book and relates to a hadith with which he stirs the emotions of Muslims, addressing them in the language of emotion. He says, “Is it conceivable that the parents of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) are in the Fire? It is not conceivable. The parents of the Messenger died in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says: [Al-Isra 17:15] So how can this hadith, which some people narrate, be correct? It is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): Sahih Muslim 203
The original of this hadith is It is as if he is consoling him, saying to him, “Do not grieve. I am the master of mankind and the best of mankind, and yet my father and my mother are in the Fire.”
The questioner : He said to him, “My father.”
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner : He said to him, “My father.”
The Shaykh : No. Another hadith came. In the other hadith:
The point is that the man denied this hadith, even though it is in Sahih Muslim and has corroborating narrations that increase the strength and authenticity of the hadith. Among these corroborations is that a man, like the man about whom this hadith was reported,Sahih Muslim 203 another man asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : Yes. So this hadith comes, and this man and his like cast it aside, exploiting emotions and saying, “It is not conceivable that the father of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and his mother are in the Fire, and they are from the people of the period of ignorance.” How does ignorance come about? I do not want to say more than that. Ignorance of the Sunnah comes about, and the ignorant person rides his head in his interpretation of the Qur’an.
So he says, “These are from the people of the period of ignorance,” and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said about them:[Al-Isra 17:15] Now, what has befallen this person? What has struck him? He understood the verse incorrectly because he subjected his personal understanding to judgment without referring to the Sunnah. We say to him, “We agree with you that the people of the period of ignorance are not punished for their disbelief, shirk, and misguidance because of this verse. But applying the verse to a specific person who was in the time called the period of ignorance is not correct, because it is possible that there was a person or persons to whom the call reached. We cannot say that a specific person did not receive the call. So if he was a disbeliever, he is not punished, by the evidence of the previous verse.”
And I said to some of the enthusiasts for that opinion when he mentioned this verse:[Al-Isra 17:15] I said to him, “What do you think? We Muslims today, has a Messenger come to us?” Think a little. He said, “The call came to us.” He was supposed to say, “No, a Messenger did not come to us,” but he knew that if he said that, it would be wrong, so he jumped straight to the conclusion and said, “His call came to us.” So the Messenger himself did not come to us, but his call came to us. So does the meaning of the previous verse [Al-Isra 17:15] refer to his person only, or to his person or his call? He said, “It is this, otherwise we would have exited.” So we were people of the call, and we were from the people of what? The period of ignorance? After this point becomes clear, we will say: Do you see the polytheists before the mission of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)? Did the call reach them? We are certain that no warner came to them. This is explicit in the Qur’an, just as no warner came to us, but his call came to us. And therefore he (peace and blessings be upon him) clarified this point, saying that the intention of sending the Messenger is not his person only, but also his call. He said, as in Sahih Muslim: So the intention of his saying [Al-Isra 17:15] is not his person, but also his call. And therefore he said, “There is no man from this Ummah who hears of the call of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) as it is, and then does not believe, but he has entered the Fire.” If that is the case, then the people of the pre-Islamic age, specifically the people before the mission of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), we know with certainty that no Messenger came to them directly. But also, as we said about us Muslims, a Messenger came to us, so we say the Arabs had a Messenger, who was Ibrahim and Isma'il. And this report exists, and praise be to Allah, to this day: [Al-Baqarah 2:127] to the end of the verse.
So the call to tawhid (the oneness of Allah) was present among the Arabs, and there were still individuals among them, even if they were few, who held fast to tawhid. So when we know these things, and it is impossible to argue with them at all, for they are truths like the sun at noon, then when we come to a hadith that judges a specific person from those who were before the mission of the Messenger to be from the people of the Fire, it is not permissible to assume this hadith... because the verse gives a general ruling, namely those to whom the call did not reach. As for this person, whether the call reached him or not, the verse cannot be used as evidence, neither negatively nor positively. So this returns to the Sunnah.
So if the Sunnah is here, what is the point? If the Sunnah is here, and we have many hadiths that judged some individuals from those who were in the pre-Islamic age before the mission of the Messenger to be from the people of the Fire, that means the call reached them. And therefore, denying this hadith stems from imposing the intellect on the understanding of the verse and expanding the scope of the ruling by the intellect to include matters of the unseen that cannot be reached except by the way of one to whom revelation is sent, which is the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).
And never would We punish until We sent a messenger.
وما كنا معذبين حتى نبعث رسولاVerily my father and your father are in the Fire.
إن أبي وأباك في النارThe original of this hadith is
That a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and said, “O Messenger of Allah, where is my father?” He said, “In the Fire.” The man returned dejected, so he called out to him, saying, “Indeed, my father and your father are in the Fire.”
أن رجلا جاء إلى النبي صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم فقال يا رسول الله أين أبي قال في النار فرجع الرجل كئيبا فناداه قال إن أبي وأباك في النارThe questioner : He said to him, “My father.”
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner : He said to him, “My father.”
The Shaykh : No. Another hadith came. In the other hadith:
That the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), on one of his journeys, turned aside from the road to its side, and there he stopped at a grave. Some of his Companions saw him weeping, among them 'Umar. He said, “O Messenger of Allah, what is making you weep?” He said, “I asked my Lord for permission to visit my mother’s grave, and He permitted me. And I asked my Lord for permission to seek forgiveness for her, and He did not permit me. So visit the graves, for they remind you of the Hereafter.”
أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم في بعض أسفاره انتحى عن الطريق إلى جانبه وإذا به وقف عند قبر فرآه بعض أصحابه يبكي ومنهم عمر قال يا رسول الله ما الذي يبكيك قال إني استأذنت ربي في أن أزور قبر أمي فأذن لي وإني استأذنت ربي في أن أستغفر لها فلم يأذن لي ألا فزوروا القبور فإنها تذكركم الآخرةThe point is that the man denied this hadith, even though it is in Sahih Muslim and has corroborating narrations that increase the strength and authenticity of the hadith. Among these corroborations is that a man, like the man about whom this hadith was reported,
Verily my father and your father are in the Fire.
إن أبي وأباك في النارThe questioner : ...
The Shaykh : Yes. So this hadith comes, and this man and his like cast it aside, exploiting emotions and saying, “It is not conceivable that the father of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and his mother are in the Fire, and they are from the people of the period of ignorance.” How does ignorance come about? I do not want to say more than that. Ignorance of the Sunnah comes about, and the ignorant person rides his head in his interpretation of the Qur’an.
So he says, “These are from the people of the period of ignorance,” and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said about them:
And never would We punish until We sent a messenger.
وما كنا معذبين حتى نبعث رسولاAnd I said to some of the enthusiasts for that opinion when he mentioned this verse:
And never would We punish until We sent a messenger.
وما كنا معذبين حتى نبعث رسولاAnd never would We punish until We sent a messenger.
وما كنا معذبين حتى نبعث رسولاThere is no man from this Ummah (the Muslim community), whether a Jew or a Christian, who hears about me and then does not believe in me, except that he will enter the Fire
ما من رجل من هذه الأمة من يهودي أو نصراني يسمع بي ثم لا يؤمن بي إلا دخل النارAnd never would We punish until We sent a messenger.
وما كنا معذبين حتى نبعث رسولاAnd [mention] when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House and [with him] Ishmael
وإذ يرفع إبراهيم القواعد من البيت وإسماعيلSo the call to tawhid (the oneness of Allah) was present among the Arabs, and there were still individuals among them, even if they were few, who held fast to tawhid. So when we know these things, and it is impossible to argue with them at all, for they are truths like the sun at noon, then when we come to a hadith that judges a specific person from those who were before the mission of the Messenger to be from the people of the Fire, it is not permissible to assume this hadith... because the verse gives a general ruling, namely those to whom the call did not reach. As for this person, whether the call reached him or not, the verse cannot be used as evidence, neither negatively nor positively. So this returns to the Sunnah.
So if the Sunnah is here, what is the point? If the Sunnah is here, and we have many hadiths that judged some individuals from those who were in the pre-Islamic age before the mission of the Messenger to be from the people of the Fire, that means the call reached them. And therefore, denying this hadith stems from imposing the intellect on the understanding of the verse and expanding the scope of the ruling by the intellect to include matters of the unseen that cannot be reached except by the way of one to whom revelation is sent, which is the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).